"-Amateur" (amateur)
10/21/2013 at 11:00 • Filed to: None
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"-Amateur" (amateur)
10/21/2013 at 11:00 • Filed to: None | 0
| 2 |
Come one, come all! We're living in the golden age of the automobiles where family sedans can smoke those sacred Ferrari's and the likes of yesteryear.
I mean seriously, I was casually reading a Hyundai booklet that I snagged at the Chicago Auto Show last year and I'm looking at the hp figures on their sedans and it's mind-boggling how far we've come.
Back in the day, circa late 80s and early 90s, a typical family sedan had the stereotypical 150-odd horsepower V-6 under that hood. All the power a person really needs to haul the family and to run errands.
As time passes through the 90s and 2000s, power is getting bumped up with the typical grocery-getter clocking in around the 190-low 200 hp ranges with the still traditional V-6.
Fast forward to today and boom; the typical family sedan like the Sonata SE can pump out 274 hp with a staggering 0-60 @ 6.1 seconds and a quarter at 14.5. The Camry SE is pegged at 268 hp with a 0-60 time of 5.8 seconds and a quarter at 14.1. An Altima can dish out 270 hp with a 60 time of 5.7 s and the quarter @ 14.2.
I'm as quick as a Camry... let that sink in and trust me, I get that this thing can drive circles around it on any given day but in terms of power, who could fathom that family sedan performance could be in the leagues of supercars?
Those grocery-getters are Faster than a Ferrari 275, 330, 308, 328, roughly the same as a 348, 412, faster than a Mondial, GTO, and a 2011 Ferrari 599XX. Did I say the 599XX , hahaha, silly me...these family sedans aren't that fast... yet.
Oh, there's more. They are faster than some Lambos; the Jalpa, Miura (non-S), and early Countachs'. I'm sure they're faster than a plethora of cars from the yesteryears but you get my point.
I mean holy hell, the age we live in. We've got trucks the size of continents hauling some serious bumper.
A Sequoia can do the 60 in 6.5 seconds. Highlander at one point in the 6.9 range. The Land Cruiser can do it in 6.5 s. The newest Tundra limited at a soul crushing 6.1 seconds. Even the RAV4 limited can punch through at 6.3 seconds. I mean there's this horsepower race, at what point do we say it's enough?
It's gotten to the point that when people see a 200 hp sports car, they say it's under- powered . Seriously?
With every-man cars like the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reaching near god-like levels of performance, now what once seemed as something special had become the norm. I mean it's a win for all of us with the level of performance available to us, but yet I feel that we are losing something as a society...ha, who the hell am I kidding, BRING ON THE POWER!!!
There will always be a place to drive fast cars slow.
There will always be a place to drive slow cars fast.
But seriously, 200 hp is not under powered. You haven't seen the quintessential definition of under powered unless you've driven an '83 base Chevy Cavalier. I feared for my life in that thing when it came to merging or just speeding up to pass.
Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
> -Amateur
10/21/2013 at 11:03 |
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Those are Hyundai Horse Power, 1 Hhp=0.81 hp
SpeedSix
> -Amateur
10/22/2013 at 17:52 |
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I thought the Mercedes-Benz 200D/220D were underpowered.
2000 something pounds with 55 hp (200D) or 59 hp (220D)